The Young Turks - Trump Racism, Ron DeSantis Racism and Cynthia Nixon Destroys Cuomo

Episode Date: August 31, 2018

A portion of our Young Turks Main Show from August 29, 2018. For more go to http://tyt.com/GETACCESS. Trump threatening to deport US citizens; Ron DeSantis was admin of a racist Facebook group; Nixon dominates debate with Cuomo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Oh, howdy. Welcome to the Young Turks. I'm Anna Kasparian, J.R. Jackson, and Mark Thompson join in today. Wow.

Jank is out. He's out for the rest of the week. This lineup has, I think it says the reoccurring theme is the third time. And as Jank was mentioning yesterday, there's nicknames for. certain lineups? Yes. We need one. We need one.

Oh, we don't have a nickname for this lineup. The best ones are already taken. Again, Jank pointed out yesterday. There's only two lineups that have a nickname. Yeah, the banana hour with banana and then the banana pie hour with John. Wow, that's almost not even a second nickname. I thought there are real nicknames involved here, but there's really one nickname. Yeah.

All right, anyway, we'll think on it. Yeah, we will. We will. All right, we have a fantastic show ahead. you guys. I'm so excited to talk about all these different topics. Trump responds to criticisms over how he handled Puerto Rico, so we will share his response with you and then give you the facts.

And then Cynthia Nixon's debate with Cuomo in New York, they are running against each other in the gubernatorial race, and that debate was fantastic. We have some highlights for you, which we will not only show you, but also analyze and talk through. Yeah, that was really like a junkyard dog. kind of thing. I mean, they really, and you, I think those career politicians like Cuomo, they're not used to getting hit back.

No, they're not. It was an amazing debate. And also, remember, for the audience that tuned in yesterday, we talked about the corruption of Cuomo, especially pertaining to the investigation of prosecutors who refused to press charges against Harvey Weinstein. Just remember that story, because it's very relevant to one portion of that debate, which we'll discuss. All right, with that said, let me remind you guys about NordVPN.

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So do it. All right. Now with that said, let's get to the news. There have been an increasing number of reports indicating that the Trump administration is either denying passports to U.S. citizens or threatening to deport U.S. citizens while alleging that their birth certificates are fraudulent. So we're talking about people in the United States with legal status, they've been born in the United States, but the Trump administration is accusing them of having fraudulent birth certificates.

Now, this has been a schick of Donald Trump since the Obama administration when he questioned the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. But if you fast forward to what's happening today, you will see that innocent Americans are being targeted by his administration. some of them are even spending time in detention centers as a result. So according to the Washington Post, a growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States, but who are now being denied passports, their citizenship suddenly thrown into question.

The Trump administration is accusing hundreds and possibly thousands of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown. So to give you some more detail into how horrible this is, in some cases, passport applicants with official U.S. certificates, birth certificates, are being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings. In others, they are stuck in Mexico. Their passport suddenly revoked when they tried to reenter the United States. In a statement, the State Department said that the U.S.-Mexico border region happens to be an area of the country where there has been a significant incidence of citizenship fraud.

So this all has to do with a story from decades ago. Apparently there was a small group of midwives who would deliver babies in people's homes. And in some of those cases, they falsified documents in order to give those children citizenship status. Okay. So this is a really difficult story because this all happened in the 1950s, it is impossible to track down which birth certificates are legal, which are not, which are fraudulent, which are not. So the government alleges that from the 1950s through the 1990s, some midwives and physicians along the Texas-Mexico border provided U.S. birth certificates to babies who were actually born in Mexico.

In a series of federal court cases in the 1990s, several birth attendants admitted to providing fraudulent documents. So again, that's terrible, but at the same time, U.S. officials have had a very difficult time trying to decipher which birth certificates are fake, which are real. And so there was this big case involving the ACLU, where the ACLU sued the federal government, because in both the Bush administration and the Obama administration, the federal officials refused to give people born along that border passports because they couldn't prove that their birth certificates were legal and non-fraudulent. But then the ACLU gets involved

and says, no, this is crazy because a lot of these people are U.S. citizens and you're using this blanket policy on everyone that was born in this particular area. It's unlawful. You can't do that. And the court actually sided with the ACLU and the plaintiffs. Now, in comes Trump. Trump doesn't care about President Trump doesn't care about this settlement, he just decides, and his administration decides, well, we're just going to punish everyone. In fact, we're going to put U.S. citizens in detention facilities and deport them, even though in a lot of cases these people might actually be U.S. citizens. So it's the broad brush approach to what's going on.

Okay, so I read deeper also into the architect, the new architect, previously it was Carl Rove, the new architect who's specifically in charge of immigration issues is Steve Miller. We already know this, right? the 33-year-old kid, I think he's from California, barges in and has this approach. And honestly, he breaks barriers for which meetings he's supposed to be in. So this is a very long article I was reading about it. But the real, just quick summary of it, he barges in the meetings, he sets up different approaches. He comes in like he owns the place and tells them, I'm the president's guy on immigration.

This is what we're doing because immigrants are coming and killing Americans. We have to keep them from killing Americans, killing Americans, killing Americans. where we heard that before and recently. So in doing that, he's set up this precedent and also has the president's ear because that's exciting for Donald Trump to hear. And he likes seeing how this works. He was part of initiating the travel ban and family separation. So, of course, when Trump is reading these long declarations, which we all know he didn't

write, that's the guy. That's the brains behind these discriminatory, broad-based policies. And he's just putting his hatred on everyone else. He's also the one who had the uncle who came forward and said, I don't know why Stephen is like this. It's like he wasn't a part of this family that immigrated here. Right, exactly. So this is where it's, this is the brainchild of the whole thing. And Trump is kind of going along for the riot because he's like, this makes me look better.

It doesn't matter to anyone else. This is what I was promising when I appealed to all my racists that were voting for me in the general election. So now we're just on a roll and now we're going to continue this. Yeah, I mean, this was sort of settled, though, as Anna said. You know, in that ACLU case, this very situation down there at the border was pretty well handled. And then now, as JR has just alluded to, you've got Stephen Miller who just goes at everything with a wrecking ball. And he likes the fact that there's a wrecking ball approach. In other words, he wants there to be controversial policy in place when it comes to immigration.

That's why the Muslim ban went down that opening weekend the way it did. Because at the airports, you remember, didn't know what to do, and there were lawyers flying. That's all Stephen Miller. he wants that. And in this case, he likes these headlines. He likes these controversies. And as we've said, Trump doesn't shy away from them either. He's saying, look, this is what you put me here for to protect the people who really belong in this country. This is a, this is a hard, to call it a horrible policy, an abhorrent policy seems to just leave you shy of how bad it is. I mean, we're dealing with people who have served the country and the military and who have made

substantial sacrifices, I mean lifetime sacrifices, and we're talking about taking away their citizenship. It's unconscionable. Yeah, it is unconscionable. And the Washington Post highlights the story of a man by the name of Juan. He spent three years as a private in the army, then as a cadet in border control, which is ironic. And now he is a prison guard, and he is being punished through this policy. Because remember, this is a blanket policy.

If you happen to be born in this certain area, then the administration is going to question your citizenship and your right to be here. The vast majority of these people, I would claim are here legally. They were actually born here. Again, the government can't decipher whether or not the documents are fraudulent, which is why it was such a problem under the Bush administration and the Obama administration. And the ACLU got involved as a result of that. But Trump, his administration, Stephen Miller, they don't care. Oh, you're Hispanic. Well, we don't, yeah, there's, of course, a possibility that you were born here, a good possibility,

but we don't care. And so they deport them, and then what? If they're not citizens of Mexico or any other country, what are they supposed to do? Yeah, it's a chance. They don't like you if you're not white. They don't care. They don't care if you're a Mexican person or if you're any other, you know, nationality, race other than white.

If you're here legally, you have a target on your body. back, and this is just more evidence of that. They want to go through citizenship records of people who are here legally to see if there are any inconsistencies or any fraudulent behavior. First of all, this administration has been so incompetent in dealing with any type of policy that they've put out, including the zero tolerance policy. There are hundreds of kids who still haven't been reunited with their parents. And so if we're gonna trust them to go through immigration records or citizenship records

or birth certificates to try to decide or figure out what's fraudulent and what's not, I don't know, I just feel like I wouldn't trust them to do that. They've done such a terrible job already. That's a great point. You know, it didn't even occur to me. This administration can't do basic paperwork. I mean, they couldn't even record the names of the parents of kids they were separating. And they couldn't, so later that they could possibly match them up.

Anna is so right, for them to then ask for additional paperwork, which is what they've done. that asked for additional paperwork to prove your citizenship, as though that, why? Like, you're going to review it and organize it in some way? You guys can't find your butt with both hands. It's absurd. And then there is additional supplemental paperwork provided them, and what happens? It doesn't matter. In one of these cases, at least, this guy who served the military and does have, you know,

he has the electric bills and he has all the other names. Here's my babysitter's name when I was five, and we can still reach her. Still, insufficient, and his passport is still not been processed. The objective was not for him to prove his citizenship. The objective was just to run him through this ringer and hope that he wouldn't have any proof. Again, you were getting some of those particulars. Evidence of his mother's prenatal care.

Right. Can anybody find those records, by the way? I was born here, United States, obviously. I was born in Hollywood, California. Yeah, I don't know how to get those records. That's ridiculous. His baptismal certificate, that didn't happen for me. Rental agreements from when he was a baby.

I don't have rental agreements from my last two places. Hold. That I've signed. Baptismal certificates, how does that provide any evidence that an individual is in the country legally or that they were born in the country legally? That's a great point. If anything could be falsified, it would be a baptismal certificate. I mean, it's of no legal standing.

Right. And again, this is, if we're talking, again, I have a six-year-old kid and I'm trying, I would have trouble getting, first time, he doesn't have a baptismal certificate. But these types of paperwork for him from 2011 till now. So think about something from 1980, 1972, 1990, where would that be? It's not like it was digitally put in a place like we do many things now, which aren't even all there. It was never the point to do that. So by the way, Juan again, military men works as a prison guard.

Works for the border control. Yeah, border control. Order control, law enforcement, and support the troops. I don't think they really care about those things. They don't care. When it comes to people they really don't like. Yeah. And by the way, I mean, how many examples do we have to show you where the Trump administration

genuinely disrespects the troops, right? How many DACA recipients have served in the military and he decided to revoke their protection to be here in the country? So that's where the real disrespect for our troops lies. It's not, you know, it has nothing to do with NFL players peacefully kneeling to protest something legitimate. It's when the Trump administration specifically goes after people because of their skin color, regardless, regardless of whether or not they've served in the military, regardless

of whether or not they're currently in the military. Well, if he ever went and visited troops overseas and just counted all the brown faces, he would see that this country sends our best over to all of these ridiculous wars oftentimes, and our best a lot of the time have brown faces. All right, well, let's move on to some other news, some updates on foreign policy. It appears that Donald Trump's relationship with Kim Jong-un continues to deteriorate, And there are new reports indicating that Donald Trump himself failed to follow through on some of the promises that he made to Kim Jong-un, and as a result, Oon decided to continue with their nuclear weapons programs. Now, Trump promised, according to reports, that Kim Jong-un, that he would sign a declaration ending the Korean War during their June summit in Singapore.

However, in the months since the summit, Trump has not done so, instead stating that Pyongyang must be. denuclearized before he signs the agreement. Okay, so let's stop right there. Here is why, here is yet another reason why Trump bungled this whole negotiation. Because they meet, Kim Jong-un says a few complimentary things to Trump, and then he starts giving away his bargaining chips. Bargaining chip, here, let me give them to you. Runs around, starts doing pro-North Korean propaganda.

And why would anyone think that they would need to. to denuclearize when the president is running around saying that they've already denuclearized. Because that's another thing that Trump did, that was disastrous. So let's go to graphic 14. Oh no, not 14, I apologize. Let's go to Graphics 16. Before taking office, people were assuming that we were going to war with North Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem, no longer,

sleep well tonight. This was immediately after his summit with Kim Jong-un. Trump also tweeted at the time, just landed a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong-un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future. So not only did Trump not follow through with his part of the so-called deal, which by the way

was an insanely vague agreement that they both signed, but he had already gone around talking about how North Korea has kept their side of the deal. So if they're going to get that kind of positive feedback from Trump without actually denuclearizing, then why would they denuclearize? It doesn't make any sense. And this backing away now from the Pompeo meeting and from engagement with North Korea, he's trying to do a little bit under cover of night. I mean, you don't see them advertising this in a press conference form because Trump likes the victory lap. Trump likes the photo op. Trump likes it the, okay, shows over, let me go collect my Nobel Peace Prize. He likes that part of the game. But as you get into the real complexities of denuclearizing North Korea,

which is not going to happen, because that's the only way that they get America's attention and the attention of the rest of the world, when it comes to that, you're not going to hear much about it because it doesn't serve Trump's interest. So I was reading more on the background of the reason why this is such a big deal between the two. So the standard, the standard, Now comes because Kim Jong-un wants the declaration of peace or a treaty, not even a full treaty to be signed, because of course, as you were mentioning off, they are also that China has to be involved in it as well. So is Congress?

So two-thirds of the Senate needs to vote on this. Trump cannot unilaterally say that the Korean War has ended. So not only do you need China to get involved, you need two-thirds of the Senate to get involved, and that's not happening. So at least this was going to be like a symbolic thing saying, okay, we're all chill. you can start denuclearizing. And actually, from what I read, there was a point of what Kim Jong-un did trust Trump when he was saying, because they liked his, quote, softer touch is what one article did point out.

They liked how he came in and he was saying, oh, we'll do all this and everyone to get everything they want. But there's other people within the administration, Mattis, John Bolton, who are like, calm all this down, we need to show how much more powerful we are than them. And that's the same approach that North Korea has to have. Because then, of course, from the war, they're thinking, we have to tell everyone. these are the sworn enemies that came in and stopped us from doing whatever the hell we wanted to do. And then after they did that, we can no longer show any weakness before they give us something.

So the standstill is nobody's going to give up anything. Now, if you remember right before this summit, when someone asked Trump at a press conference, what are you doing to prepare? And he said, I don't need to prepare. I've been preparing for this my whole life. It's called talking to and becoming nice with and getting along with and having a rapport. That's all I need. I've been preparing for this my whole life.

Yeah, yeah. So then in doing that, he prepared for this by not knowing any of the background or not knowing what it is. There was, I mean, there was like a closed door one-on-one session. I think it's one of the times that he promised. He also promised Kim Jong-Chol, the same thing, days before the summit. So he's saying things he doesn't know what he's giving and not in his counsel doesn't know what he's giving.

And they're going to disagree with him and he's going to make him look bad later and make him also not know what the hell he's doing because he didn't know what the hell he was doing. Right. There was a lot. So there could be something to this if he knew how to approach it is the thing. Yeah. Look, there was a lack of preparation going into it.

And what I mean by that is, you know, just to kind of buttress off what you were saying, JR, there, from the get go, there appeared to be miscommunication and lack of communication between Pompeo, Mattis, and Trump. Because Trump kept saying things that conflicted with what Pompeo had said on the record or what Mattis had said on the record. Well, at one point, they said they weren't even going to do it. Remember, they could, well, we can't pull together this so quickly now. And then Trump says, oh, no, the hell we aren't, we can't.

You know, I need my headline. I mean, this is the reason why it's, it's problematic to have a president who has no interest in doing things in a collaborative way. He wants to do things unilaterally. I don't think he has any idea that he can't single-handedly unilaterally call an end to the Korean war. Now, there's an armistice, you know, between both both. Koreas. It's essentially like a, not a peace treaty. I guess it's a, like a ceasefire type.

Yeah, like a ceasefire type thing. But technically the war is still happening, right? And so Trump is like, oh yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'll end it. But he doesn't know that he can't single handedly do that. He needs to get the Senate involved, China needs to be involved. He's a clown. Or what that means if he doesn't. Exactly. Again, what it'll happen is, is it'll a lot of people may be supporters of his or normal supporters of his to say, why is he showing this weakness towards North Korea and giving them that concession without getting anything for it? But that's what North Korea wants.

They want that guarantee that they're not going to look weak. But Trump's people, Mattis, John Bolton, and those like them want the same thing. Like we can't look weak. We're the United States of F in America, what are you going to do? And then North Korea has the same thing like, we're going to put the United States in their place. 1953? It's, that's the standoff. And he didn't understand it. Simple as that. No, he doesn't get it. And, you know, if he were making decisions single-handedly, Anna, I would have a problem. But the fact that he makes a decision single-handedly,

and he has no clue as to what he's, what the playing field's like, what the strategy is, what the history of the situation is. And you can apply this to everything, North Korea, and any other decision he makes. That's why things are done so recklessly. Then it takes to another level of danger. And surrounded by Pompeo and what is a hawkish White House right now, I worry that they'll talk this guy into an armed conflict in Iran. You're already hearing about the sort of they're ramping up the rhetoric on Iran. This is a very dangerous situation because, again, the chief executive is clueless,

and he could be sold anything. And the thing that I worry about the most is Trump is thin-skinned enough to allow things to escalate. And I feel like things are already escalating. Right now, Kim Jong-un and his officials are claiming that Trump isn't keeping up his side of the deal. All they need to do is insult him a little more and his temper will flare. And that's my, that's the worst case scenario. That's always been my biggest fear with this whole thing. I love the fact that he wanted to sit at a table and have a conversation with him and negotiate with him.

But his lack of preparedness, his lack of knowledge on this issue. you know, his temperament, all of those things could lead to this getting worse. And I don't know, I guess we'll see what's going to happen in the future. I think they did know they're stroking his ego enough to keep him calm because North Korea doesn't want that either. Yeah, although remember the ramp up to that summit? That summit, thank you, was pretty nasty. I mean, they were both calling each other.

One guy's calling Trump's calling a rocket man. He's calling him a crazy, you know. So JR, they have trash talk to each other. Yeah, and then after they got this potential concession that they wanted, he's thinking, okay, let's give some escalation from the North Korea's side, some escalation to what you guys are about to screw up, but let's not anger him too much because then we'll lose what we almost have him on him. Yeah, that's a terrible.

I remember before he was running, we were saying his negotiating tags, at least foreign leaders studied him and said, oh, you just give him some sugar, and dude's going to be on his knees. Yeah, it's devastating. All right, well, we have some updates on Puerto Rico. Trump's reaction to the new death toll and other news. So stick around. Remember to use the hashtag TYT love to tweet to us.

We'll be right back. Oh, hey, everybody. Welcome back to TYT, Anna, J.R, and Mark with you. A few TYT lives. Mellybitch writes in and says, Trump and his administration, I just love your name. Trump and his administration being obsessed with fraudulent birth certificates makes me almost certain he has a fraudulent birth certificate.

Yeah, normally it would work. that way, right? Right. I mean... They do the projection thing. Yes, yes. As you were talking to Jank about on a recent episode of old school. Yes. Yeah. It was you... Yesterday, right? Right. It was me and I think Alonzo. Yeah. It was really good. I love that show. Okay. Matt O'Dame says... It's also like two of Trump's three wives and the mothers of four of his five children

weren't immigrants too. Oh, that's such a great point. I mean, go back and check the paperwork on Trump's family, I mean, on his wives and ex-wives families. Sand Rock 323 on TYT's Super Chat says they are targeting trans activists as well. I wouldn't be surprised. And Meckman, F.R, says on Super Chat as well, I have a new shirt idea, use the image of Sanders for president campaign, and use the phrase hindsight 2020. So we've had that idea and it's active. It's an accurate depiction of hopefully what will happen in 2020.

Okay, let's move on to some other news. We need to talk about a relatively new show called Un-F-E-N-F-TR. As a Young Turks fan, you already know that the government, the media, and corporations are constantly peddling lies that serve the interests of the rich and powerful. But now there's a podcast dedicated to unraveling those lies, debunking the conventional wisdom. In each episode of Un-B-The-Republic, or UNFTR, the host delves into a different historical episode or topic that's generally misunderstood or purposely obfuscated by the so-called powers that be.

Featuring in-depth research, razor-sharp commentary, and just the right amount of vulgarity, the UNFTR podcast takes a sledgehammer to what you thought you knew about some of the nation's most sacred historical cows. But don't just take my word for it. The New York Times described UNFTR as consistently compelling and educational, aiming to challenge conventional wisdom and upend the historical narratives that were taught in school. For as the great philosopher Yoda once put it, You must unlearn what you have learned.

And that's true whether you're in Jedi training or you're uprooting and exposing all the propaganda and disinformation you've been fed over the course of your lifetime. So search for UNFDR in your podcast app to this. and get ready to get informed, angered, and entertained, all at the same time. The official death toll in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria was updated from 64 deaths to 2,975 deaths. That is more than a thousand, a thousand more people that died from Hurricane Katrina, just to give you a sense of how terrible the situation was following the hurricane and it continues to be a bad situation.

However, Trump is in complete denial about the job that he did in response to Hurricane Maria. And I don't want to put words in his mouth, okay? I don't want to take him out of context. I want you to hear Trump's full statement yourselves. So let's take a look. I think we did a fantastic job in Puerto Rico. We're still helping Puerto Rico.

The governor is an excellent guy, and he is very happy with the job we've done. We have put billions and billions of dollars into Puerto Rico, and it was a very tough one. Don't forget, their electric plant was dead before the hurricane. If you look back on your records, you'll see that that plant was dead, it was shut, it was bankrupt, it was out of business. They owed tremendous amounts of money. They had it closed up, and then when the hurricane came, people said, what are we going to do about electricity? That wasn't really the hurricane. That was gone before the hurricane.

But we've put a lot of money and a lot of effort into Puerto Rico. And I think most of the people in Puerto Rico really appreciate what we've done. But Puerto Rico had a lot of difficulties before it got hit. So he's alleging that Puerto Rico lacked power prior to the hurricane, which is untrue. He is lying and he's purposely doing so. The media hates to admit when the president is lying. They don't like to accuse him of lying. He is lying there, okay?

They had power. It wasn't a perfect power grid by any means. No, it was a fragile power grid, and they fiscally had huge issues in Puerto Rico, so make no mistake about it. It was a troubled place. But the lights were on, the refrigerators worked, the hospitals had power, so it's wrong to say that they didn't have power. But it this way, over a two-week period, maybe two to three-week period, nearly 3,000

people weren't dying in Puerto Rico because of the weak power grid, put it that way. Exactly, exactly. So there was the spread of sepsis, people who had diabetes passed away, they weren't getting the treatment that they needed because the hospitals couldn't provide it. There were a lot of different issues following the hurricane. And politicians in Puerto Rico rightfully mentioned how there was disproportionate, a disproportionate response in Puerto Rico versus Texas. and Florida.

And they're completely accurate about that. So he can't, you know, puff up his chest and talk about how he's done a great job in Puerto Rico when the facts show that he did not do a great job in Puerto Rico. More people died following Hurricane Maria versus Hurricane Katrina. And as we mentioned on the show yesterday, it's not, you know, some sort of competition, obviously, but we're bringing that up because Hurricane Katrina was a giant stain on Bush's presidency. and Trump wanted to make it seem as though his relief efforts were so much better, but they were not in Puerto Rico.

No, in fact, this was his Brownies doing a hell of a job moment. You know, when Bush went down there and he talked about his head of FEMA and said, it was Michael Brown, I think his name, and said, and Brownie, Brownie doing a hell of a job. And, of course, nothing could have been farther from the truth. And I was reminded of it when I watched Trump sort of speak about how great a job had been done in Puerto Rico. when obviously not only has there not been a great job done, but actually a worse job probably than in that, I imagine saying that, a worse job in Puerto Rico than Katrina, which was an apocalyptic disaster for many of the communities down there.

And after that, storm hit down there, actually didn't even hit Louisiana's harder as it hit, I believe, Alabama or Mississippi, it actually, I think, hit harder. But because of the infrastructure and things that happened down in around New Orleans is why that hit harder and killed so many people. So, again, it goes to preparedness and the response. So there's factors that were involved that Trump childishly pointed out before, saying it's a big, it's an island. If you don't know what an island is, it's a body of land surrounded by water, big water, big, huge water.

So, okay, that's a hurdle to get past. I get it. Florida is connected to the mainland, and Texas, obvious, is connected to the mainland. So you can get transportation and you can help people. You can get supplies there. much easier than you do, flying onto an island and getting stuff there, right? I get it, right? No, no, I'm not even giving him that.

No, I'm going to give him the reason I won't. How much money do we give to the military? Exactly. We give so much money, like it's the majority of our discretionary spending. That's my point. So it is harder, but you know what you do? You put some more money into it and you get it done. It's not a matter of we can't do it because it's harder.

It's, we're going to do it and we're going to commit more resources to it because it's harder. Instead, he said, you know, it's hard. So, nothing. So just forget about it. Only 64 people died, he thought at that point. So who cares about that? That was the big illustration of his priorities. If we're going overseas to fight a war, trust me, we're sending some serious artillery.

Yeah, you can get supplies over there. Quickly easily in some war zones where people don't like us. It happens. You get it done because you want to get it done. So that was my point, not that he's going to off the hook, but these things are harder to do. So you do it. You're the president of the, I thought we were the big. bad ass country in the world. Nobody touches us. But we can't handle this? Of course we can't handle

it. Under his leadership, we can't handle it because he doesn't want to handle it. Well, it was laughable, though. He once again those photo ops. He went down there in Puerto Rico. You remember he threw paper towels into the crowd like you could sop up the water or something. And that was, I mean, this was a, it was embarrassing. His administration's treatment of the situation in Puerto Rico is just a monstrous embarrassment. And it's not, while it's, it was an awful toll, both in terms of the infrastructure there and the human loss of life, it was manageable in terms of what we would have been able to do on the U.S. mainland, because as these guys have both said, you can marshal a military that is built to carry a lot of big, heavy stuff

across the way to wherever it needs to be. Yeah, it was, he should be profoundly embarrassed, and he seems as though it's just the opposite. He's, I don't think he's ever felt embarrassed. He doesn't have a capability for that. It's back to what you're saying earlier. It's the headline. He's like, I can't say this was tough and we bungled it. I have to say, no, we did excellent job. It was perfect.

It was fantastic, I think his term was. We did a fantastic job. It was only the mayor of San Juan that really called him out, right? I mean, the mayor, she is one strong and honest leader. And she was not afraid of the president. He didn't mention her in his remarks. I noticed in all his remarks. He mentioned the governor, I think.

A good guy, the governor's a good guy. Anybody who supports him as a good guy. Not like that mayor, that loudmouthed woman. Right. You know what, though? I love her salt. Totally. Like, she's so well spoken.

And she said during an interview with CNN that the neglect, Donald Trump's neglect, the administration's neglect is what's killing Puerto Ricans. And she's accurate in that. We died because of bureaucracy and inefficiency. took hold of things. We'd die because many of the political class in Puerto Rico decided to dance to Donald Trump's tune rather than doing what everybody ought to do. She accused him of being incapable of feeling solidarity and empathy because it's true.

It's true. Yeah. Exactly. All right, switching gears a little bit. Let's talk about Jeff Sessions, someone that I don't have much love for, but Donald Trump is so deplorable that he has me defending Jeff Sessions. It's very strange. So let's get to that.

Donald Trump has always been extra salty about the fact that Jeff Sessions. recused himself in this Russia investigation. And what we didn't know until now is that behind the scenes, Trump has been aggressively lobbying senators to flip on sessions. And guess what? It's working. According to a report by Politico, the willingness of Republican senators to turn on Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the result of a furious lobbying campaign from Trump,

who for the past 10 days has been venting his anger at sessions to any senator who will listen. So political actually spoke to Senate aides, and they leaked some pretty fascinating information. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and South Carolina's Lindsay Graham have been irritated by Sessions' opposition to criminal justice reform bill they support, and that's according to interviews with more than a half dozen congressional GOP AIDS. So without further ado, I want to provide some evidence of these lawmakers. Flipping on Jeff Sessions, I give you Exhibit A, Lindsay Graham, talking about Sessions in an interview, take a look.

I hope they can repair these problems, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. The Department of Justice needs a voice that people in the White House will listen to, and the president needs a cabinet. He's confident in. So you think the president has cause outside of the investigation to fire Jeff Sessions? I think you serve at the pleasure of the president. But serving it the pleasure, the president means the president could fire you if he didn't like your haircut.

I mean, truly. Truly, straight up, he can do what he wants. Under that bus, like under it, under it, okay? Like Jeff Sessions is hurt, his bones are broken. I think though, I mean, and the reason that the president's lawyers and others have counseled the president from firing sessions is because it is arguably obstruction of justice in plain sight, you know. I mean, what other motivation, even if you say, okay, well, he's got other motivations, he doesn't like his haircut or whatever it may be, if you go with the Lindsay

Graham Yard stick. But still, so, but at the same time, sir, there is an investigation going on on behalf of the Justice Department, which is involved in your administration and the, and the election, actually perhaps having some connection to the Russians and some sort of, you know, conspiracy involving those around you. So, point being, this would be a firing of sessions. It could be that obstruction of justice in plain sight, although it seems as though in this new Washington, nothing matters. It's amazing.

So, okay, for the sake of this conversation, let's just take Russia out of it, okay? Because for some reason, that continues to be a ridiculously divisive topic, even for progressive. So let's take it out. Let's take it out. Just focus on what Lindsey Graham said in that statement. He says that the attorney general should serve at Trump's pleasure. No, but that's not the role of the attorney general.

I mean, if you believe in an authoritarian leader, then have at it. Like, that is what you'd want. But no, the attorney general is not there to be Donald Trump's personal protector, personal like butler, whatever it is. Like, he's not there to serve at the president's pleasure. Are you crazy? You think that's okay? How pathetic and sad is that?

He's there to serve with the president's pleasure and the president can think, hey, this guy isn't doing his job as far as legally to protect the country. So he goes, you know, this guy isn't really doing his job for the country, I can get rid of him. Not just for yourself. Yeah, exactly. So Lindsay Graham is advocating for the president to have the ability to fire someone if they are not serving the president at his pleasure.

And then the very end of that, the tail end of that clip, that means the president can fire someone for not liking his haircut, but truly, that's your response? Or his apparently stupid southern accent. That's, oh, by the way, yes, mention that. Because that's relevant. That's relevant for Trump's base, by the way. Trump apparently can't stand Jeff Sessions's southern accent. Sounds like he's talking with marbles in his mouth, apparently.

Oh, Jerome. He doesn't like his kebler ears. He doesn't like his sly little smile. Oh, so much drums. To be fair, Trump, as far as we know, has not mentioned anything about Jeff Sessions' ears. But he has mentioned his southern accent and says that he sounds like he speaks with marbles in his mouth. Okay, let's go to the second video. This is Lindsay Graham again.

And hear what he has to say about the family separation policy and who he's blaming it on. Is there, but do you think there is there a substantive basis? Yeah, I think the immigration issue, it was poorly handled. The zero tolerance, brother. I don't know where that came from. And I think that sort of blindsided the president. You know, the bottom line is this. You don't know where it came from?

You think it blindsided the president? Okay, I have many things to say, but I don't want to filibuster this panel. So you guys don't know it. Well, I'll just say this. It was a front and center item for this administration. I mean, to suggest that the president didn't know and didn't have a hand in it, it's absurd. It was a front and center top priority item. And it continues to be.

The immigration Muslim band, he talked about it on the campaign trail. These were repetitive issues and winning issues for him. You're damn right he knew about it. Apparently the lobbying efforts from Trump were working, at least on Lindsey Graham. Because, you know, once he comes forward, he said, I love Jeff Sessions. He's a stand-up guy, and it's okay, and he recused himself. But somehow, it's gone now to, he was a part of the family separation of zero-tolerance immigration policies. I don't know where that came from

because apparently President Trump was standing at the podium every day going I don't understand like this concerns me we're separating these families and his children's lives are going to be affected forever in fact creating people who hate America because of the disaster we've done to their families simply for many of them

trying to get away from a more disastrous situation and Trump was actually he was on TV I think I saw him shed a couple tears he was worried he goes I'm blindsided I don't know where this came from I have no control of what happens within this administration no one listens to me At TYT, we frequently talk about all the ways that big tech companies are taking control of our online lives,

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But J.R. makes a great point, Anna, quickly, and that is simply that he has worn these guys down. As you suggest, he has politiced. He has stayed after them. Even his inner circle at the White House has finally begun to let go of this because he wants sessions out, and he may get it and damn the consequences. It's incredible. And his very public campaign against Sessions continues. During a recent interview on Fox and Friends, he had pretty negative things to say. And I put an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions, never took control of the Justice Department.

By the way, he was on the campaign. You know, the only reason I gave him the job because I felt loyalty, he was an original supporter. He took the job and then he said, I'm going to recuse myself. I said, what kind of a man is this? I just, I don't understand why. Sessions would, I don't understand why anyone would want to be part of this administration. Trump has no respect, no loyalty, no admiration or affection for anyone other than himself.

And he just publicly says the worst things about people who work with him. People that, you know, I don't know. Just Sessions has a, go ahead. For access to that tanning bed, I might work in the administration. That's all I'm saying. Really? That tanning bed is terrible. Well, no, he spends a little too much time there, Anna, but I think you could tweak it in.

And smaller dollars. Get the right look. Get a healthy bronze look there. He needs to choose like a color, a spray tan color that goes with his skin tone. Because like the orange is not. Yeah, a little much. Anyway. Like, no, spit up.

Jeff Sessions has a wife and three kids. And I assume the children are adults. He's an older gentleman. If my father was getting talked about like that on television, I'd be like, okay, hey, dad, check it out. Listen, if you want me to, I'll talk to him for you. Apparently, you're over here looking. It's real soft on TV right now. You want me to call him?

Hey, you know, I'll send him a letter. You want me to do, I got to do something because right now you're making my whole name look bad. You're letting this man talk about what kind of man is this. The only reason I hired him is because of his loyalty, and I expected him to get back on his knees. What kind of man is this to not get on you? He's gotten his knees for other things to bow down to Trump anyway. So he's been that guy. Never took over the Justice Department, this lifelong attorney.

Oh, no, no, no, just he's nothing unless he does my bidding, which he's done 98% of the time. 98% of the time. Look, I have no love for Jeff Sessions. So there's a part of me that's just amused by this. And, you know, you get what you deserve. He was one of the early supporters of Trump, and that's what you get for supporting a terrible human being. But at the same time, this sets a dangerous precedent. If you believe in democracy, if you believe in a fair system of government, Trump has,

shown himself to be a real authoritarian. And if he's willing to fire the attorney general because he's not doing anything and everything that Trump wants, well, that's not something that I could ever stand behind her support. So one final thing that I wanted to mention, of all those who are starting to bend and, you know, act in a certain way to please Trump, there's one senator who has stood firm in his support for Jeff Sessions. And that's Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he said, quote, I have total confidence in the Attorney General. I think he ought to stay exactly where he is. So, I have no love for Mitch McConnell either.

I think he looks like a turtle, and he's also done a lot of terrible things. Wait until next week, he'll be changing this story. Yeah, well, let's see. Mitch McConnell is awful, start to finish, but how he looks doesn't really, I don't care. No, no, I know. I know. That's the least relevant part, but I find it's charming almost that he looks that way. Do you really?

I mean, charming. You do love turtles. In other words, it makes me. Okay. That's it. I can now, I do love turtles, all right. There is out there. All right.

We got to take a break when we come back, some updates on Ron DeSantis, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Florida. He got caught up doing some shady stuff. We'll tell you what that stuff is when we return. We hope you're enjoying this free clip from the Young Turks. If you want to get the whole show and more exclusive content while supporting independent media, become a member at t-y-t.com slash join today. In the meantime, enjoy this free segment.

Hey guys, welcome back to TYT, Anna, J-R, and Mark with you. You guys should be members of the show because there's going to be a postgame today. There's a post game every day, and it's kind of my favorite part of the show. I love them being a member. I'm a member like everybody else. I pay them monthly, you know.

It's great. It gives me access to all the show on demand. Yes. So, as I've mentioned previously, I really enjoyed the TYT app. But what I enjoy the most about it is old school. That's the, I never miss old school. I listen to every episode. And so I have this long commute home, and that's when I listen to podcasts.

And I was listening to the podcast with you, Alonzo Bowden, and Jank. That was the old school episode from yesterday. And it was so good. You only get it if you remember, though. Yeah, I agree. And last day I would say is that they're kind of conversation. do get into politics, but then they're wide-ranging away and nothing to do with politics. But you get a sort of unvarnished conversation.

There are no real time constraints. And so it really is something special. I would encourage people to check it out. Yeah, the conversation about how culture determines whether or not you learn certain life skills was fascinating. Sounds drama-related. And it could be. You guys should check it out. Go to t-y-dnetwork.com slash join to become.

Sounds like it's based in a lot of research and thought experiments and processes, but I don't know, you've got to listen to it and decide. It's experience-based, empirical evidence, sir. Yeah, yeah. All right, we didn't get any TYT super chats, not a big deal, you know, it's just superchats help support the show. Yes. No big deal, no, seriously, you can let us go under.

No, no, I love you guys. It's okay. For those of you who have donated, love you so much. For those who haven't, still love you, but thank you for supporting the show. in any way that you can. All right, if you see YT lives for you, T, T, Futo, Futo, says, do you plan on trying to get Cynthia Nixon on your show? That would be awesome.

Yeah, why not? I think so. I don't book guests. I don't even request guests, but I'm sure we were working on it. Also, Neurological says, when he says, meaning Trump, I think a lot of people appreciate what we did, he means. You should appreciate what we did. This is how a narcissist talks for those who don't know.

No sense of empathy at all. Hashtag impeach Trump. So true. That's a great point. That's the way you decode that verbiage. Yep. Yep, exactly. Hamby Solo says, T.YT.

Not only does real Donald Trump forget the one running Puerto Rico is a woman, he forgets that Puerto Rico is part of his presidency. How ignorant and sexist can he effing be? Right there with you. Right there with you. Well, and Puerto Rico, by the way, of course, has no real vote. You know, I mean, they don't, he doesn't need to, he doesn't need Puerto Rico. And he really only plays to those places that he requires some political favor from.

So, yeah, I would add that. He can solve them the way he used, again, I was going through a lot of the things he said after the hurricane. And he goes, our country is given so, he was while he was in Puerto Rico, our country is given so much to you. What country are you in? They're part of our country. Yeah, right. Oh, unbelievable. All right.

been so generous with our foreign dollars to you. Sorry, go ahead. So absurd. Okay. By the way, I'm sorry, but it's not, somebody could have just reminded him because he is going there. And he is talking about this place, which is center stage for that moment. They would go, hey, you know, just remind you, of course, Puerto Rico's Commonwealth, blah, blah, blah, part of our country.

You know what you might have explained Guam or something to him, you know. You might have overlooked it because you're like, there's no way he doesn't know that. Like, it slipped your mind because he's like, okay, how low. Of an intellectual level, do I have to go to prep him? What I'll start with? Pictures. Yeah, we know now. It's pretty low.

Much lower than you think. This is the United States. Yeah. Okay. Do you think he can point to the United States on a map? I mean, look, we didn't do this story, but he failed to color the U.S. flag correctly. He made one of the stripes blue. Red.

I think you couldn't identify probably easily seven states. and their location on the map. And I always felt that during these conversations he was having with media that was giving him back rubs in the election ramp up, I thought somebody should ask him, well, can you just on this map find, just show me Syria? Just show it to me. Right, right. They've been scared off because of the Palin got you back to stage with, I think you're right?

Probably couldn't have gotten away with that. I mean, that would have been. Because Katie Kirk asked what newspapers you read. And it was a genuine question. Yeah. It was supposed to be a softball question. But you're right. My scenario probably would have been, it's too much of an obvious.

It'd have been like, oh, look at this guy. Look, he's trying to trap him. Okay, moving on. Representative Ron DeSantis from Florida is in the news again following his terrible racist statement regarding his black Democratic gubernatorial opponent. Gillum, we talked about that yesterday. He accused voters of monkeying this thing up if they end up. voting for Gillum. Well, now we have some more details on who Ron DeSantis really is. Media Matters did an investigation into a questionable Facebook group, a racist, horrible Facebook

group that Ron DeSantis was actually an administrator of. So DeSantis was one of 52 administrators and moderators of the Tea Party group, which is not affiliated with the official Tea Party Patriots, including former Arizona Republican Senate candidate. Kelly Ward, no shocker there, and Virginia GOP, Senate candidate Corey Stewart, both of whom still serve as admins. Now, when Natalie Martinez with Media Matters broke this story and tweeted about it, Desandis was like, oh yeah, let's just be cool, be cool, I'm no longer admin, what are you talking about? Like, how much of a joke can you possibly be? It doesn't make it better if you, after the story comes out, decide to no longer be the admin.

But let me give you more details. Several members of the group have shared DeSantis's campaign posts with one specifically naming the candidate as an admin of the group with nearly 50, I'm sorry, 95,000 members, which is depressing, by the way. Like 95,000 people were like, yeah, yeah, I totally love this page. So why was this page so problematic? The group's members have shared racist, misogynistic, and offensive posts, including post-slamming Parkland shooting survivors and disparaging Black Lives Matter activists, comparing

both to Hitler. That makes sense. Okay. Also, in one of the posts that was Islamophobic, a person posted about Trump and said, President Trump eats bacon, just one more reason to elect him in 2020, and then continue to say, oh, I'm sorry. And then a commenter in that post said, unlike the last guy, meaning Obama, at least you know he isn't a Muslim mole. Because, yeah, that's what Obama was, a Muslim mole, as he was dropping, like, bombs in Muslim majority countries and killing countless civilians, Muslim civilians.

Yeah, yeah, Muslim mole all the way. Yeah, Obama dropped so many bombs that they ran out of bombs, literally ran out of bombs in, was it February or two years ago or three years ago? So, look, this is just a, it's a forum for hate. It is. It's stomach turning, as Anna says, to see those numbers of people who go in for it and contribute to it and contribute to it and lift it to another level. So as things were getting, I'm not sure you pointed out yet, but the people that were promoting him. Go ahead. Within the group.

So I didn't want to bring it up if you hadn't yet. I had not. But, so he's getting promoted by certain people within this Facebook group, hate group. And on purpose, obviously, he's running for governor. So as he's getting promoted throughout the group, then, as you said, he decides to jump back out of it. There's nothing, the point of this whole thing, the reason they brought this background of him up is because what happened right after he won his primary and he's going to face off

in the general election. And then he decides to bring up the monkey it up comment. Right. So now his background gets pointed out. If you don't think, the point of bringing all this up, if you don't think these guys don't know who they're appealing to, who they're speaking to and how they're speaking to them, you're wrong. They don't go into interviews without knowing what they're going to say, without being coached up

on talking points, without having things scribbled on their hands the way Sarah Palin did. There's an approach they have. There's a reason they're called talking points. They know what they're supposed to say. You're not supposed to call a Democratic debate. And that same sentence where he said monkey things up, he said the Democrat debate. That's a well-known, you're supposed to call them rats. So your brain goes, oh, Democrats are rats.

That's right. Democrats are rats. So when he says something's like monkeying it up, and you don't hear him always say that, you might think that it was a plan ahead of time. Now, you don't know it because there's no proof of it, but we know that politicians, especially at this level, don't just randomly say things without having a meaning behind it. And when you're part of a group and you're an admin of a group that does things like this, you continue to know what it is.

And when you hurry up and get your name off of the admin group once it's been discovered, you also know you don't want your name to be connected to it on a wide scale because they're continuing to find out who you really are. Yeah, and I just want to reiterate that monkey it up is not a phrase, right? Monkey businesses, monkey around is. He said monkey it up, which is not a phrase. It's not something that people say. It's not an expression.

The fact that he decided to use that phrase in his description of Gillum, who's a black democratic opponent of his, says something. And so yesterday when we covered that story, Jank said that it. It is a very specific targeted strategy of DeSantis. And it took a lot to convince me of that. But this story is relevant because it gives you a sense of who he is, what his background is, what he truly believes. No one would agree to be an admin to a page like this unless they subscribe to the crazy

stuff that's posted there. And just one final thing, I wanted to save the best for last. They also share all sorts of conspiracy theories. The group's members have also denied that the far-right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville took place in August of 2017, claiming that it was a hoax orchestrated by the left to destroy America. So that's who these people are. And up until recently, DeSantis was an administrator of this page.

In case you don't remember, this guy in the White House also after the Charlottesville rally that killed that woman, decided to say, you know, there was bad people on both sides and made sure that he was doubling down on that before days later saying, okay, okay, fine. I couldn't get away with saying that and actually feeding that red meat to my base. Whether or not they believe it or not, that's who they want to appeal to. That is who they, that's who they know is, that's where their bread and butter is. These guys act all the time as to where they want to be. And honestly, even if you say, hey, I didn't mean that, the fact that you said it means

that you at least mean it to someone else. Well, right. It's fuel on a brush fire, for sure. And whether or not they really believe it, I mean, it's, it doesn't matter because of just that. Exactly. All right. Thank you to JR for doing our one with us. In the second hour, Maita Alhassen joins in. She's going to help us discuss the debate between Cuomo and Nixon, which just took place. The panel's going to get much smarter. Oh, J.R. She's very smart, but so are you, J.R. She's way smart than me. She's way smarter than me. You're smart. To J.R.

By the way, J.R. Thank you. That's what I was looking for. I was fishing. Tell people where to find you. The Young Turks. I also do T.Y.T. Sports. Ricky Strom and I, we go on there and we talk sports most days of the week. Ricky's on his recovery bed from his. Unbelievable injury.

We know about that. But, yeah, no, you'll catch me there. You'll catch me here. You guys always see me. I'm not over there today, but I'm always around. All right. We will take a break, and we'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks.

Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.co slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.